Partnership Supports Troops With New Insect
Control Measures

New, high-tech fabrics that repel insects are one technology being
developed by Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists as part of ongoing,
cooperative research with the U.S. Department of Defense (DOD) to protect troops from
insect-transmitted diseases.

Since ARS began working with DOD in the 1940s, its scientists have
made a number of discoveries to support the military. They invented the aerosol
spray canister--dubbed the "bug bomb"--to dispense insecticides, and they
tested and reported the repellent properties of DEET. ARS researchers also
developed ultra-low-volume fogging equipment, and led the development of
permethrin-treated military uniforms and bed nets that repel ticks and kill
disease-carrying mosquitoes.

Recently, ARS partnered with DOD in an initiative called "Deployed
War-Fighter Protection Against Disease-Carrying Insects", which is composed of
several projects at five locations across the nation. The initiative's current
emphasis is on identifying and testing new classes of pesticides, new tools for
applying pesticides in military environments, and new methods for personal
protection from insect vectors.

At the ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural and Veterinary Entomology
(CMAVE)
in Gainesville, Fla., and at the Chemicals Affecting Insect Behavior Laboratory
(CAIBL)
in Beltsville, Md., ARS scientists and their cooperators are developing
sophisticated modeling methods for selecting promising insecticide candidates
from thousands of compounds.

At CAIBL, chemist James E. Oliver is leading an effort to develop
fabrics with permanently incorporated repellent properties in their molecular
structures. Entomologists
Mat
Pound and
Kim
Lohmeyer at ARS' Knipling-Bushland
U.S.
Livestock Insects Research Laboratory in Kerrville, Texas, are working to
reformulate the current pyrethroid treatment used by the military so it will be
effective beyond the current 10 to 15 washings. At CMAVE, chemist
Ulrich
Bernier and an industrial partner plan to infuse fabric with non-pyrethroid
chemicals.